Chapters (110)
- Cover
- ALSO BY J. TODD SCOTT
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- PROLOGUE
- I
- II
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- PART TWO
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- PART FOUR
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- EIGHTY-FOUR
- EPILOGUE
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Excerpt from LOST RIVER
- LITTLE PARIS
- DILLON
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
SHE FIRST WENT TO BASEBALL and stripped him of anything useful, searching his backpack. She did the same for Tatuaje, taking the machete. She checked their shoes and belts, grabbed their canteens. She carefully took their guns and extra ammunition and set them aside. Surprisingly, she found a roll of gauze and dirty tape in Tatuaje’s backpack and a small bag of marijuana and some yellow pills in a plastic bag, and she used what she could to bandage Chayo’s wound and gave him one of the pills with a mouthful of water.
The bullet had passed clean through Chayo’s side, leaving a bloody, weeping hole both front and back. He had lost a lot of blood, and there was no way to put it back in again. Either the lost blood or the pill was making him light-headed, like he was leaving a part of himself behind and floating away into that blue sky. He was rising as high as that halcón he’d seen earlier.
He truly was flying.
He wanted to lie again in Neva’s shadow, but it kept moving, too, racing across the ground too fast for him to catch.
She pulled the bloody rosaries from around Baseball’s neck, and put the wooden one around her own and the metal one on Chayo.
She put Baseball’s hat on Chayo’s head, and tied Tatuaje’s bandanna around her hair, keeping it out of her face.
She put one of the guns in her waistband, and the other in Chayo’s backpack.
Then she got him onto his feet . . . pulled him standing, and the pain was so bad it made him want to scream and scream again, but he couldn’t.
She made him chew another pill.
At the edges of his vision, the world had gone dark and silent and still . . . dormido . . . and he didn’t want to wake it up.
The sky was full of murciélagos showing them the way, or he was dreaming them.
Or instead it was a plane, high above, arrowing to the sort of cities he promised Neva he would take her to. He wondered if the people in that plane were looking down and could see them.
Will they remember them?
He was slowly dying. Tonight, tomorrow.
Will anyone?
What was it Baseball had said? The river brings them to us and takes them away again.
Neva had her arm around Chayo and started them both walking again.
FORTY-NINE
As Danny finally left the Far Six, Melissa and Zita and Rocky the dog were getting into Javy Cruz’s truck. Zita was still wearing Danny’s hat, and the sheriff was hovering close to Melissa, helping her and the baby. They were their own gravity, constantly pulling him back to them.
Danny knew Chris didn’t want to let them go, even though this was all his idea.